All the major fashion glossies are currently unveiling their extra-weighty, much-hyped September offerings. You know what that means: the unspoken competition for September cover of the year is well underway. Once again, Harper’s Bazaar US asked the venerable Carine Roitfeld to style its annual Bazaar Icons cover shoot. This time around, the man of the hour is not Kanye West, but fellow musical artist The Weeknd (née Abel Makkonen Tesfaye). The Brigitte Lacombe-lensed cover also stars top models Adriana Lima and Irina Shayk. The black-lipped, green-eyed beauties flank Tesfaye on either side.

IMAGE: HARPERSBAZAAR.COM

Our forum members have mixed feelings about Bazaar‘s latest. “What a random cover trio! But at least it’s something different for them. He looks the best though,” observed Miss Dalloway.

“It’s sad when the non-model looks the best,” echoed a disappointed wendylorene.

“Trainwreck!! Oh my God, this is so uneventful. None of the girls look like themselves on the cover, and they can drape as many bombshells on The Weeknd, he’s never be appealing. I’m all for something new, but with this guy they’ve scraped the bottom of the barrel,” complained an unimpressed Benn98.

Also not feeling it was MON, who pointed out: “Vogue had Zayn with Gigi. Bazaar has The Weeknd with models. Stop using women for props. If you want a man for the cover, do it!”

Mepps couldn’t agree more. “The Weeknd? I don’t dislike him, but this cover is so reductive. Why is the man being flanked by two women, as if he’s the center of attention? It just doesn’t look like an image shot by Brigitte Lacombe. Both Adriana and Irina look like goth witches,” he heckled.

“I just genuinely don’t like seeing men on a September issue unless the focus is more towards the women on the cover which isn’t the case here. Couldn’t they have saved the music issue for another month?” asked GERGIN.

“Interesting trio indeed, but what an awkward setting. The crop is awkward, the posing is awkward and the models don’t even look like themselves. Unfortunate,” added ax80.

IMAGE: HARPERSBAZAAR.COM

See more from Carine Roitfeld’s annual Bazaar Iconsportfolio and join the conversation here.